London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

Campaigning Labour MP Tom Watson has Michael Gove and his wife, Times columnist Sarah Vine, in his sights. Animosities began when Watson called the Education Secretary “a miserable pipsqueak of a man” and mocked a column, penned by his wife, the newspaper’s beauty editor, who revealed that she lived “in terror of upsetting my cleaner”.

Watson has tabled a series of written parliamentary questions designed to embarrass the couple. He asked whether Gove had been accompanied by his wife on official duties and whether public funds had paid for any such visits. He also asked how many “posters and displays there are in his department displaying the photographs of ministers” and how much this has cost the taxpayer.

Watson may be disappointed with the answers. Officials say Ms Vine “does not accompany him on his official duties” and the photographic displays in the education department’s reception area are “produced in-house by civil servants at minimal cost”. What questions can Watson dream up next?